Events

Get set for an All In Bluegrass Jam on the verandah of the Nannup Bowling Club. Bring your instruments and some songs to share on Saturday 3rd March 3:00pm to 5:00pm.

The Nanupo Festival runs from Friday 2nd to Monday 5th March in Nanup Western Australia.

About Nanup and the Festival:

Nannup is a small and historic timber town in the centre of Western Australia’s stunning Southwest, on the banks of the beautiful Blackwood River. The Nannup Music Festival is held annually over the WA Labour Day long weekend, over which time the streets come alive with stalls, performances and activities. The Festival, now in its 29th year, is a community-spirited event operated by a passionate and dedicated team of Staff and Committee from the not-for-profit Nannup Music Club Inc.

Jam Camps Australia has announced three jam camps for 2018. The first jam camp is scheduled for Burleigh Heads on Queensland’s Gold Coast, the second in Quorn, South Australia’s gateway to the Flinders’ Ranges and the third in Victoria’s popular Phillip Island.

The Tamworth Country Music Festival is more than a music festival where people gather to hear and play country music. As it happens, Andrew Clermont, musician of many styles, has arranged for a number of events this year ranging from his usual Supper Club offering at the North Tamworth Bowls Club to the Golden Fiddle Show and Tamworth’s Capital Theatre and others.

Some of the shows on offer this year:

One show at Murrurundi on Fri 19th @ The Chicken in the Window Barn
The Supper Club at North Tam Bowlo 20th – 27th Jan.
Supuer Book Launch 11am Tue 23rd Jan – Tamworth Library
The Golden Fiddle Show 10am The Capitol Theatre, in Tamworth

The Tamworth Supper Club is a week-long affair offering two shows from 6:00pm and 9:00pm each night except for the 26th with just one 9:00pm event.

The 6:00pm shows offer a variety of performances and artists while the late evening show (9:00pm) is a themed event.

The Golden Fiddle Show at The Capitol Theatre is a huge celebration of fiddle music featuring:

Jess Randall in “Devil on the Rooftop”,

Pixie Jenkins with some multi-fiddle Bluegrass of Uncle Pen.

String Loaded Family Band with Blissett Sisters

Jude Iddison (WA)

Rob Long on drums,

Garry Steel – Piano & Accordion,

The fiddle show will also feature Paddy Montgomery, Peter Fidler on Dobro & Mandolin and Andrew Clermont’s

We have a special bonus of some triple mandolin section pieces, a grab of some Stephan Grappelli swing, Old-time to modern Bluegrass, Scandinavian adventure and the simply un-expected – Andrew Clermont.

A full program is set out on Andrew Clermont’s website for those wanting to delve into the machinations and intricacies of the weeks offerings.

Mustered Courage are gearing up for a productive 2018 or so they tell us. They have a few festivals booked across Australia and will be heading off to the studio to start work on a new album for this year.

While still planning out the remainder of their year, we hear that there is some exciting news to be heard from them soon…?

In the mean time you can catch them at a free concert this Saturday 13th at Union Hotel in Melbourne’s Brunswick – 5:00pm to 7:00pm.

More About Yarra Junction Fiddlers’ Convention:

The Convention is held at the historic and Heritage listed Camp Eureka – www.campeureka.org.au. We couldn’t think of a better place for it. There is a huge concert hall with open sides, a smaller hall, large kitchen/dining room (communal cooking encouraged), a covered barbeque area and 35 acres of bush, with a small creek. Be nice to the hard-working Camp Eureka Working Collective folk who work the gate. Ask them about the Camp, and how you can get involved in maintaining this icon of the old Victorian left and an Australian founding place of the “folk revival”.

Camping:
Most people camp. There are no powered sites, but electricity can be arranged only if needed for medical equipment. To get a good spot, come early. No extra charge. No admission to the site until 2.00pm Thursday. Campfires should be OK, unless there is a total fire ban.

Bunkhouses:
There are single sex bunk house beds available. Contact Ken on 0451 680 266 by early February to reserve bed. The bunk houses have electric lights, but no power points. No extra charge. Cabins are (pretty much) full – phone Ken.

Toilets and Showers
Notorious pit toilets, of usual good bush camping standard, recently upgraded. Two are wheelchair accessible, though assistance may be required. The showers are wood-heated, so hopefully someone will have lit the water heaters before you arrive.

Food:
Fine fast food from Friday evening on from Spud Shack ,who filled in last year for Terry Palmer’s café de wheels, with extremely good veg and non-veg food, including Thai snacks. Terry died in ahead-on collision with another motorcyclist just after Christmas.Good espresso coffee and hot chocolate.

After a busy Christmas there is no more relaxing way to celebrate the start of the new year than sitting down with friends and fellow pickers to play some music – that is if you play bluegrass music.

For those in the Melbourne area the first slow jam for 2018 will be Sun afternoon 21st Jan 2018.

These slow jams kicked off in July 2015 and are hosted by Mike Clark of Doncaster in Melbourne. Mike was inspired by the 2015 Wernick Jam Camp he attended in Forrest Victoria that year and has organised for like-minded musicians starting out on their jam exploits to meet on a monthly basis and play bluegrass music together.

The first jam attracted five people including Mike and have continued ever since. If you’d like to attend, you can contact Mike using the contact form below. He will notify you of the location and time of this months jam and future jams.

Both Kellie and Pete are members of the Orpheus Supertones who played MountainGrass a few years ago.

Pete Peterson

Pete Peterson is a legendary and prize winning three-finger banjo player, guitarist and traditional singer. His extensive knowledge, skill and experience playing traditional old time music is unrivalled, making him high in demand as a teacher and contest judge. Pete has taught at Mars Hill Blue Ridge Old Time Week, Augusta Heritage Camps, and others including Gainsborough, England. Pete has also been a judge at the Charlie Poole Festival, Fireback Fiddle Contest and other places. He got his first guitar and banjo over fifty years ago and now plays one of Charlie Poole’s banjos. Pete’s signature and distinctive sound on the banjo echoes that of Charlie Poole, who played three-finger banjo, backup style.

Pete Peterson and Kellie Allen

Pete also plays guitar with a thumb pick, following in the style of old-time guitarists such as Roy Harvey, Maybelle Carter and Riley Puckett. His use of these banjo and guitar styles is uncommon and adds to the distinctive sound of the Orpheus Supertones.

Kellie Allen

Kellie Allen is a wonderful old-time singer, great bass player and old time style guitarist originally from Kansas, who lives in SE Pennsylvania with her husband, Pete Peterson. While in her teens, Kellie started playing old-time tunes with her brother, a wonderful fiddler and banjo player, Greg Allen, and was inspired to sing and play by her musical family.

Kellie has played at many festivals and concerts around the world, with a variety of bands, including the Orpheus Supertones, Waking Up Tillie, Sugar Pie, The Ubiquitones and with the Janie Rothfield Trio. Kellie and her husband Pete Peterson, sing old-time and early country duets together, and she teaches old-time guitar, bass, and singing at festivals and music camps around the country.

Kellie has won numerous old time music prizes with the Orpheus Supertones and Waking Up Tillie, as well as individual awards in Old Time Singing. She and Pete have a CD of duets titled I’ll Never Forsake You.

International Bluegrass Music Association’s 2016 instrumental band of the year are set to play the Mountain Pickers’ night in Melbourne’s Ferntree Gully this month.

Since Frank Solivan left the cold climes of Alaska for the bluegrass hotbed of Washington, D.C., he’s built a reputation as a monster mandolinist, and become a major festival attraction with his band Dirty Kitchen.

Solivan, with banjoist Mike Munford, 2013 IBMA Banjo Player of the Year, award-winning guitarist Chris Luquette and bassist Jeremy Middleton, simmer a bluegrass/newgrass stew from instrumental, vocal and songwriting skills so hot, they were named IBMA’s 2014 Instrumental Group of the Year.

Something not to be missed. If that were not enough then the added attraction is the support band – none other than New Zealand’s Pipi Pickers.

Victorian band Nine Mile Creek will be playing live to air on Southern Style with Jan Dale on November 14th. Following that on-air stint, they head to Harrietville for the MountainGrass Festival the following weekend.

Southern Style can also be streamed to your computer, so you might like to also catch Jan’s special in the archives of the PBS website.